1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sports boards, such as skateboard, surfboards, snowboards, windsurfing boards, kitesurfing boards, wakeboards, and the like, and more particularly to binding methods and methods of providing foot traction on such boards.
2. Discussion of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
The 2006 Winter Olympics brought a high level of world attention to the growing popularity of board sports. In the case of the Olympic Games, the prominent sport was snow boarding, but with only a little attention to the commentary and interviews with the athletes, it became obvious that the favored off season sport of snow boarders was skateboarding. These sports, along with a rapidly growing number of alternatives to mainstream sports, are coming to be known as extreme sports. They include such things as rock climbing, windsurfing, kite surfing, snowboarding, snow skating, inline skating, roller hockey, women's hockey, skateboarding, motocross racing, freestyle BMX bike riding, technical canyoneering, whitewater kayaking, base jumping, sky surfing, and so on. Indeed, a full embrace of such “thrill” sports appears to be tracking the more general cultural practice of aesthetic self-fashioning, and as that culture matures, a culture in which death is increasingly felt to be remote and unlikely (due to sophisticated medical practices and increased life spans) yet more real and dreadful (due to skepticism and decreased religious belief), brushes with death are all the more compelling. And so it is that youth will even more dramatically push the boundaries of the possible, challenge life (and death) and perform remarkable and beautiful feats in the process.
Interestingly, participants in extreme sports also demand good equipment. Whole industries thrive on providing stronger, lighter, faster, more durable, and better performing gear. This is certainly the case for binding methods for snow boards, windsurfing boards, skis, and the like. Recent contributions to the field of binding methods are far too numerous to list and describe. But a few developments in the field of magnetic binding apparatus are of note.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,383, to O'Neil, teaches a ski-binding system including front and rear coupling units attached a ski and cooperating boot attachments of magnetically sensitive material. Each unit includes magnetics such that when a ski boot provided with the attachments is positioned between the units, the boot is secured by the magnetic attraction between the boot attachments and the magnetic units. As a first instance of magnetic binding methods, the cleverness of the '383 patent is undeniable, but its practical utility is almost entirely restricted to use on skis, as the binding units are bulky, fixed, and work only with relative rigid boots.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,357, to Golling, discloses a snow boot and binding system for snow skiing or snow boarding in which only magnetic forces are used to affix the snow boot to the ski or snow-board. The system comprises three components, namely, a support base in ski or snow board, a foot enclosure assembly, and release means connected to the foot enclosure assembly for releasably interconnecting the foot enclosure assembly with the support base. The support base has spaced-apart recesses within which are mounted magnets, either singly or in an array. the foot enclosure comprises a snow boot having metal plates affixed to the lower surface and the back of the snow boot. The release means essentially comprises a lever system for prying the boot off the support base through moving a cam handle. While this system allows for selective placement of the user's feet on the sports board, it entails the use of rigid boots and so is truly suitable only for snow boards, but not for skateboards, surfboards, wakeboards, and other sports boards used with free feet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,192 to Bryce shows a binding apparatus for use with sports boards such as skate boards, which includes two knobs integral with the top of the board and which insert into matching recesses in each of the user's shoes. The knob may include a compression ring or the knob and shoes may include cooperating magnets that hold the two together up to a predetermined breakaway force. The limitation of this method is that the user's feet are fixed at the position of the knobs.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,583 to Takahashi, discloses a surfboard having a magnetic region made of permanent magnets, which is, in turn, covered by a foot pad, and to which a surfer is secured through shoes having ferromagnetic material included in the soles. The inventive principles in the '583 patent providing the launch point for the novel improvements of the present invention, in that the '583 patent does not teach or disclose any means for interchanging, adjusting, and selectively removing the magnetic region in the sports board.
The foregoing patents reflect the current state of the art of which the present inventor is aware. Reference to, and discussion of, these patents is intended to aid in discharging Applicant's acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information that may be relevant to the examination of claims to the present invention. However, it is respectfully submitted that none of the above-indicated patents disclose, teach, suggest, show, or otherwise render obvious, either singly or when considered in combination, the invention described and claimed herein.